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(forget I said that)

We've just had a mail round pointing out that tomorrow there's going to be a seminar here by Matthew Meselson on the genome organisation of Bdelloid Rotifers. This is interesting firstly because Meselson is somewhat Godlike and secondly because bdelloid rotifers are damn strange creatures. They're the second most common group of multicellular animals on the planet (beaten only by nematodes) and there are no males. At all. As far as I can tell nobody's ever seen one and there's evidence they've only done asexual reproduction for about 40 million years.

Should be interesting, as long as I remember to turn up.

WRT yesterday's comment on that voting questionnaire, I am reminded of a line from a sketch sending up general election coverage, from about 25 years ago, with whoever was minding the swingometer saying "You may notice that the swingometer doesn't allow for a large Liberal swing. This is because it only covers realistic situations. The only place I've ever seen a large Liberal swing was in Cyril Smith's back garden."